Good evening and welcome to the Wednesday, September 24th, 2025 meeting of the Long Middle School Committee. Mass general law allows for remote participation at public meetings through June 30th, 2027. All votes while there is remote participation must be made by roll call vote. This meeting is being
recorded and aired live on LCTV. School committee members, when I call your name, please say here for the record. Emily Hansen here. Zack Veridan here. Jamie Hench, here. Kate Bean here. Adam Rosen Bloom. Oh, did we lose Adam again?
May not. Adam Rosen Bloom, can you unmute? Are you good? Yes, you can hear us. Adam, check. Check. Can you hear us? I'm guessing now. Yeah. All right. Why don't we jump ahead to
the pledge and then we'll check back in after that? Maybe this connection will be better to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all. All right, Adam, we'll try one more time. Can you hear us? All right. Looks like we're still muted. There you go. No, we heard you this time. Can you hear us? It was us. Yeah. Okay, you can hear us now. Yeah, perfect. We were muted. Thank you.
Sorry. All right, we are going to head into correspondence. Emily, um, email titled unfortunate events dated August 27th, 2025. Sent by Jeffrey Clotsz. Email titled due diligence dated September 9th, 2025. Sent by Jeffrey
Clotsz. Email titled followup to parent meeting dated September 11th, 2025. Sent by link. Email titled Glenbrook idea dated September 11th, 2025. sent by link. Email titled question about sporting fields dated September 11th,
2025. Sent by link. Email titled quality in school distance. Please review. Dated September 8th, 2025. Sent by Kurt Freriedman. Email titled size and proximity effects of prim of primary schools on surrounding house values. Please review. Dated September 7th,
2025. Sent by Kurt Freiedman. Email titled question. Wolf Swamp Elementary School dated September 19th, 2025, sent by Dorothy Jones. Thank you. And moving on to approval of minutes. We have a possible motion about our September 8th meeting minutes.
I move that the school committee approve the minutes to the September 8th, 2025 school committee meeting as presented. Thank you. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Emily, yes. Zach, yes. Jamie, yes. Kate.
Yes. Adam. Yay. And yes for me as well. Thank you. All right. That brings us to public speak. We have some folks here in in the room with us and ready to dive in. Um we will begin with people who are in the room. Um some quick reminders. Open with your
name and your either affiliation with the schools or address. Um and you've got about three minutes. [Music] My name is Kurt Freriedman. 24 Ridge Road Long Middle Mass. I'm a resident of Long Meadow. Good evening, Long Meadow School Committee. I attended grades K
through 12, including Glen Brook, as did my two sons. I greatly appreciate the fine multi-generational Long Meadow education curriculum and have always supported the public schools. In early July, I had a telephone conversation with our superintendent explaining my
involvement with the Save Our Middle Schools ballot question committee. My concerns for the combined middle school include, but are not limited to, a much downsized school building size, limited auditorium seating, 60% less than our present seating capacity. Limited
resources, only a single sports field and only a downsized single indoor gym. Reduced resources equals reduced opportunities. A limited additional student enrollment capacity. Traffic E or F level of service for surrounding roadways and intersections. Unwanted 7
foot earthn BMS obscuring a butter backyards. Reduced property values. Reduced walkability and biking. 1.4 to 2.3 added miles of travel to the proposed middle school. There are no sidewalks on Shaker Road. Since the use
of shake shaker road can reduce travel distance by threearters of a mile, students may likely choose Shaker Road with no sidewalks and compromise their safety and most of all the loss of Glenrook as a neighborhood school. The superintendent informed me that in a
perfect world, he too would support the renovation of both Williams and Glenrook. My response, since we will never have a perfect world, we must always strive to do the right thing. The consolidated middle school has many disqualifying features that would
logically better support the renovation of both Williams and Glenrook to provide the greatest possible quality of education for our students and protect the financial interests of homeowners. Many residents may not be able to afford
even the average incremental $1,235 first year tax expense. If Glench closes, the collective property devaluation for the Glenchrook district may likely exceed $50 million.
And what about the financial impact of the possible affordable housing units on the abuters in the Glenrech district if the land is utilized for affordable housing? We should never compromise our established 60-year community educational standards for convenience or
harm the financial interests of our neighbors. Might does not make right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming out tonight. Mr. Freriedman, did you also have a comment? Oh, no. No, thank you. Just here. Okay, then we will turn our attention. That is all the folks in the
room. We'll turn our attention to people online. If there's anyone online who would like to make a public comment, please raise your hand and or turn on your camera now so we can see that you would like to speak. I am not seeing anything from folks online. We do not have any hands raised
nor cameras on. So, we're going to go ahead and move forward to our business with guests, school committee announcements and recognitions. Um, I am filling in for Michaela Fitzgerald, our chair this evening. Um, and she sent me a note to
read for her school committee chair report. Um, a reminder to get out to vote in the special town election for the new middle school. Early in-person voting continues for two more days through Thursday at Greenwood Center at 231 Maple Road. You can also vote in person on Tuesday, September 30th at the
community house. Voting hours at Greenwood this week um include tomorrow from 9 to 3:30 p.m. There is no vote in early inperson voting from Friday, September 26 through Monday, September 29th. The voting hours on September 30th
at the community house are from 7 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Make your voice heard. Our town's vitality depends on it. Any other committee announcements or recognitions? All right, seeing none, we'll head into reports. Superintendent report.
Uh, a few items. Um, I want to mention again that um, uh, Beth Nelson, director of curriculum, has initiated a science and social studies review. Uh, and I think it was a question at a recent meeting whether or not that was a a K8 or K12 undertaking. It is a K12 undertaking. So, I just wanted to
clarify that. Uh we have a big uh professional development day scheduled on October 3. So our directors here in the central office are are working collaboratively to put together a program for all staff uh both licensed professionals and support staff as well.
Um and in the world of uh people services uh full day preschool um is off and running and it's a great success. Um Tom and I have been in touch with uh the director of our preschool and still grateful to the support that the school
committee provided uh to to make that happen on the special education alliance along Meadow has a um a day at Shaker Bowl on the evening of the 28th of September. It's a meet and greet for families if they'd like to attend. Uh
and additionally, um NaZari, our director of student and family support, reports that we have, uh the DA's office will be running online safety programming for students at our elementary schools in the weeks ahead.
So, thanks to Nilda for arranging that. Thanks to the DA's office for working on that. Uh we also are proceeding with our independent investigation of the very serious personnel matter that uh has been our concern. uh and we have given
um the investigator full and unfettered access to uh all the information he needs and um uh we await that report. I don't have a timeline for you on that yet, but really it's as as long as it takes basically to to get us the information that we need and and
ultimately to share it with the community. So, uh nothing further on my end. All right. Any questions related to this? Yeah. So, I guess I just heard what you said was um the the timeline for that investigation is not preset at all. It's just right
when it's complete, it's complete. It's uh we've we've given uh the investigator just full access, full and direct access to all the reports, emails, documents that that uh he has requested. And so, um, rather than
putting sort of a a finite or artificial end date on it, we felt like it was best just to let him tell us when he's exhausted the investigation and he's prepared to write that up and and return it back to the community. Great. Makes sense. Yep.
Other questions? All right. Um, other reports. Um, uh, any additional reports, LPVC, Kate or Emily? Yeah. Um we had a meeting uh last week. I think um
there there is a primary concern um especially in Lello with shortages of um drivers for transportation and it sort of I think in their district has really sort of come to a head. Um
no resolution at this point. Um they are looking to hire they did they are down a a bus if not more than one bus due to the fire that happened at one of their stations. Um but it it's a slightly contentious issue
at this point uh whether Lello will continue using them for transportation or not. Um I think that was the main issue at the meeting. Yeah, that was the main issue. We had a a a joint meeting. My group usually only meets three times a year. We came in, we had joint meetings, we had to vote on um
approving a loan refinance. But yeah, the main issue was uh the the lack of uh bus drivers um and the number of routes sort of compounding and especially LEO being impacted. So, they are looking at uh potentially going a different route
and doing um their own transportation contracts with a different company to help mitigate it instead of using the um LPBC buses. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, appreciate the update. All right. Um, Seal, we don't have a specific update for, but can you just
share one more time what's the date for? Uh, September 28th, Shaker Bull meet and greet uh for uh members of the community who want to uh connect with SEAL, which does a great job of advocating for special education services for students
in Long Public Schools. So, Shaker Bowl and 28th. Perfect. Thank you. And energy and sustainability. That's you. Um so the committee met on Thursday September 11th and we were joined by several guests um really to discuss the middle school building project since it passed that first vote and is moving forward. The
committee wanted to understand how energy and sustainability could be more involved with the build and also specifically want to touch on solar and um natural versus artificial turf. Arman Ray, the chair of the middle school building project, said that working groups are going to be spun up over the next few weeks and that he would connect
with the chair of energy and sustainability about adding someone from that group to um a working group um as the project sort of begins the next steps around the fine details of the build. Um the committee also wanted to better
understand why uh artificial turf was selected. There's a lot of factors in the decision and so they're going to try to get a turf expert to meet with energy and sustainability so that they can have all their questions answered of why they settled on artificial turf um including the type of artificial turf materials that we can consider installing. I have
no idea. There's tons of different kinds of artificial turf that you can install. Um, the committee also discussed car idling awareness with Superintendent O'Shea and some options for sharing information with parents and caregivers, including flyers that could be passed out and portable signs that might be moved around to different schools as
rotating signs might make them stand out more. Um, and then we spent a significant portion of the meeting talking about drafting a climate action plan for Long Meadow over the next 12 to 15 months. This would set standards and goals for our town, which would definitely include our schools. As that starts to take shape, I'll work with the
ENS committee to ensure that there's solid collaboration with school committee wherever the plan touches on items that would impact our school so that we can be in lock step on those pieces. And our next meeting is October 9th. All right. Wonderful. Thank you. Next up is our student representative report. Miss Danica Shay.
Hi. So last Friday we had the Lancer way. Um so a bunch of clubs got a lot of new participants. A couple hundred students attended the Lancer way. Um, I was there. It was a great turnout. Um, I was there for Key Club and we definitely
got a lot more new members from that. Um, it was mostly freshmen signing up for new clubs, getting involved, which was great. And then anyone who went to the Lancer way got a free ticket to the first um, home football game, which we
also won, which was great. Um, and then tomorrow is going to be the class elections for the class of 2029. So, I'm sure all the speeches will be um amazing and everyone will do great. Um and then I know a few sports teams are having
games tonight. Field hockey is having a game right now and I hope that that goes well for them. Great. Thank you. Best of luck to the school student government candidates tomorrow. Um any questions for Miss Shay? All right, we are headed into
subcommittee reports. Um, curriculum, eval, and finance do not have reports, but policy sub does. Um, do we have a new chair for policy sub? Uh, Dr. Rosen Bloom is our the chair of the policy subcommittee. If you, Adam, I can do that or or you're welcome
to, however you want to hear. You know, I don't think I could say it any better than you. All right. There were three items um that were discussed by the policy subcommittee on Monday.
Uh one was um an item that doesn't require any action by the school committee and didn't require any action by policy sub and that is how to define um competency for students who graduate
uh from Long Meadow High School. So, uh, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is requiring districts to, uh, formally define a competency determination that has to be done by December 31st. So, we just had a sort of general discussion on that topic
with policy sub on Monday. No action was needed. No action was taken. Uh, there were two other items that uh, the policy subcommittee did take action on and uh, are worthy of your consideration tonight. Um the first relates to uh some
handbook language in response to the Supreme Court case of Mahmood versus Taylor. Uh you may recall back in June the Supreme Court had ruled that uh districts needed to be responsive to any uh religious objections that um parents
or caregivers might have to uh curriculum. And so the Mass Association of School Committees has suggested some language for the committee to consider. Uh it's in a memo that's in your packet. I can you want me to pull it up on the
on the screen or it's it's short. I can read it. Um yeah, sure. So the the the handbook language that is being suggested by the Mass Association of School Committee and was also recommended by your policy subcommittee is simply that consistent
with Massachusetts regulations of Long Meadow Public Schools through its curriculum materials encourages uh respect for the human and civil rights of all individuals regardless of race, color, sex, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation. In accordance with
district guidelines, families may request information from the building principal on available accommodations related to curriculum content. And so, uh, the feeling of, uh, MASC was that if we were to include that in our handbooks
and school committees vote on handbooks, uh, if we were to include that in our handbook, that that would fulfill our response to the Mimmude versus Taylor decision and it would signal to families that they can um seek available accommodations, particularly those
relating to uh, their religious orientation. So we can pause on that one and then we can come back to the third item from policy sub. So this would be a change to handbook or a change to school committee policy. Great question. Th this would this would
uh live in the uh K8 handbook and in the 912 handbook. So it would not need to uh live in your policy manual. Although I would say language like this exists throughout your policy manual. In fact,
I I listed some of the policy references that line up with the language that I just read. Um, so the recommendation was to include it in handbooks, which really by extension are school committee policy because school committees vote on the
912 handbook and we also vote on the K80 handbook as well. Certainly no harm in if you wanted this at the at the policy level and and include it in your policy manual. I could sort of find a work with our attorney to find a landing spot for it in your policy manual, but the
recommendation from the MASC was that it could live in the student handbooks. Okay. And if it's going into student handbooks, is that a vote that we would take or a vote that or a policy that goes out for public comment? It's not the second one if I'm recalling correctly. Not the second one. It would not have to
go out for public comment. It would it could be a vote this evening to include it in our handbooks. and our handbooks are posted electronically so we can just update our handbooks. Okay. So that's for your for your consideration. Um certainly open to any
questions you might have. Um and if it made sense to the committee to um make a motion to support the inclusion of that in the handbook, we can we can answer any questions you have on that as well. All right. Questions andor thoughts from
folks. Can you walk us through the next one? Sure. Um, so the next one is um I'd say this is largely almost a bureaucratic thing. So this relates to um
ensuring that we are making students aware of career and technical education opportunities. And so, um, DESIE is requiring that by October 31st,
districts have a policy that, uh, ensures that we have a career tech partner, which we do. Our career tech partner is the LPBEC. There's a number of shops that kids can participate in at the LPVC. So, number one, it it it ensures that we
have a a CEK partner. And then there's also it also needs to establish the various ways that we will uh support awareness and access to these programs. And so this policy would commit us to
running tours for our eighth graders, which we already do. Um making families aware of the application process, which we already do. um ensuring that uh career tech representatives are invited
to our um open houses or our parent orientation events and and they already are. So there's a lot that we're already engaged in. I'd say that um mostly this codifies a lot of the practices that are already in place.
The nuance might be that it's requiring that that these orientation activities occur by I believe it's October 15th of each year. Um this policy also articulates some of the
um career planning that uh students in middle school and and high school have access to. Um, so for your that's the that's the second item that came out of policy sub. Both the earlier language that I read and this policy had the
recommendation of or reported out of policy sub with a recommendation. All right. questions or thoughts about the middle school pathways exploration and or language that would potentially be added to the handbook related to that?
The in this case uh the the middle school pathway language um Desi is recommending that it be a school committee policy. So this one would this one would reside in your uh in your policy manual. It would go out for first reading, second reading,
and I think on at your meeting on the 28th, you could vote it or not. October 28th. October 28th. Correct. Okay. All right. We don't take a vote to send it out to public. We don't take any action. It's just no action.
My memory. All right. I do have a question. Yes. Um it says on the second page that students don't assume the cost of the trips. Um where uh how do we budget for that or where does that come from? LPVC would have to pay for it. Okay. And that's in uh DESIE regulations. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. Um if you wanted, we could make that more explicit in this policy that the cost is to be borne by the LPBC, but I figured it since it's your policy, it's hard to impose. Yeah. I mean mainly I was just trying to
understand if there was a cost implication to us pivoting to this but if it's if it's LPVC that's flipping the bill then in fact it'll save us a few dollars because they'll be they'll be required to pay for the bus from now on. Previously in in in past years we've paid for the bus I believe. I'm looking
for to Mr. Maz. Yeah. So all right great. Thank you. Yeah. Um potentially could entertain a motion on the if if it made sense to the committee on the handbook language. Um for us to
include that in the handbook, it would would require a vote of the school committee. Okay. Or you could wait until your next meeting. So I'll leave this up if somebody would like to. I might prefer to table to the next one so we can have council review
um to ensure that we're in line with Massachusetts regulations which I'm guessing we are because the language seems to be taken largely from uh Massachusetts general law 603 but just this this language actually well I should I should have I should have clarified that it came from the MESC but
also the um I'm going to mess up the the acronym but the joint council for school attorneys Okay. Which our attorney, our firm was directly involved with. So, um I had talked to our attorney Sarah Spataphor about this and and she said absolutely
this this received they had direct input into this and they were supportive of this language. Okay. So, this language is echoing Massachusetts state law about uh encouraging respect for that is the lang if I'm recalling correctly that is literally pulling from that language. encourages respect for the human and
civil rights of all individuals regardless of race, color, sex, gender identity, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation. Um, and then in accordance with district guidelines, does that refer back to our policy on um
KEC and IHM and even AC? I'd say, yeah. Okay. Now, I'd say this is not as um timesensitive as as some of the other items. Um, so if you felt like this needed, you know, if you had questions
of me individually that you want to, you know, talk about offline or or even talk about now, this one doesn't require any action tonight. If you felt like it had some additional questions or wanted to think about it. Okay. All right. I'm going to move us forward
then seeing no hands going up at the moment. Um, and let's head into new business. Mr. Mass, I'm guessing that's you. We have some building use requests. Yes. Good evening. You have four building use requests in your packet tonight. Uh the first is from the center school PTO requesting use of the gym at
center school for their 21st annual Halloween hustle 5K on October 25th uh 6 a.m. to noon. The second request is from the Rays of Hope for use of the Blueberry School parking lot on Sunday,
October 19th from 7:00 am to 4 pm. Uh the Wolve Swamp PTO has requested use of the cafeteria and parking lot for their annual turkey trop 5K on Saturday, November 29th from 8:00 a.m. to noon.
And the last one is also a request from the Wolf Swamp PTO for use of the Wolf Swamp parking lot field playground for the Big Bad Wolf trunk or treat on Sunday, October 19th with a rain date of
October 26th from 10 to 4 and the event is running from noon to 3. Uh, finance sub did not have a chance to review these to recommend them. So, a motion will just be 4 p.m. All right.
Um, we might have a little discrepancy. Oh, no. I think the notes are saying the dates they were submitted. Correct. Yes. Okay. Not the dates of the Gotcha. Um. All right. Perfect. So, um, we have a possible motion if someone would like
to make that. Yes. Uh, I move on the recommendation of the finance subcommittee that this is that actually the recommendation? No, I would strike that. We'll just go ahead and move that the school committee approve committee. Thank you.
I move that the school committee approve the consent agenda for the September 24th, 2025 school committee as presented. There is no discussion of items on a consent agenda. If a committee member would like one or more items on the consent agenda discussed, the committee would have to vote to
remove the items from the consent agenda. All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. All right, so reminder again that there is no discussion of items specifically on a consent agenda. So I'll read through each one really quickly. Um and if anybody would like to have one pulled for separate discussion, please let me
know. Uh the first is Rays of Hope. Um, the second is the Wolf Swamp PTO for the annual turkey trot. The next is the Wolf Swamp PTO for the big bad wolf trunk or treat. And the next is um center school PTO for the Halloween
hustle. All right, seeing no requests to pull those out, we will vote on the motion at hand for the consent agenda. Um, Emily, yes. Zach, yes. Jamie, yes. Kate, yes. Adam, yay. And yes for me as well. Thank you. All
right, that brings us to school committee goals. I'm going to recommend so we only had a few folks who were able to respond to school committee goals. Um my recommendation is that we table this until our next meeting, but with a
caveat. Um I'm going to ask um Dr. to send out copies of the ones that have already been received so that everyone can review that and maybe we can also attach to that copies of our current goals from last year. Um just to give people a little bit
framework um in case they need a little help getting started um and if everyone can respond to that in the next week or so um there's a link to a Google form in your email and make some suggestions and the next time we're here we'll talk. We also have, and you just told me the
date, now I forget, at our next meeting, October 14th. Thank you. October 14th, a tentative date for our um annual school committee administrator retreat. That will be October 14th at 5:00 p.m. So, that'll be an opportunity for us to also
hear from administrators and talk a bit together before we actually vote on our own goals, which I feel like will help inform that process a little bit better. So, a couple of reasons there to push this out. If anyone has any questions about goals and or needs any help thinking things through, you can obviously reach out to Dr. O'Shea.
You're welcome to reach out to me or Michaela as well. All right. Any questions and or thoughts about goals? No question. No. Can you repeat the date of the October 14th meeting? October 14th at 5:00 p.m. At 5:00 p.m. Yep. All right. That brings us next to a
memorandum of agreement with unit A related to the elementary workday. I'm guessing you're tackling this one. Sure. Um so you have an opportunity to this is um an MOA with unit A. The UNA represents uh includes uh licensed
educators in the Long Meadow Education Association as we had agreed in the contract that was settled in the spring to work toward an MOA that would define the end of the
elementary workday. And so in your packet is a copy of the language that we had um developed with the LEA. And essentially it says that the elementary workday uh concludes once professional
responsibilities have been fulfilled including but not limited to instructional duties, exent family communication, student supervision and support and scheduled meetings provided that all students and visitors under the educator's direct responsibility have either uh safely left campus or are
under appropriate supervision, exemptions or adjustments can be made only through prior administrative approval. So rather than defining the end of the elementary day for our educators at a specific time, this defines the day in terms the end of the
day in terms of their professional responsibilities. I think it's a a reflection of the uh the professionalism that we receive from our elementary educators. It's a it's a reflection of the the professionalism that we want to extend to them likewise. So, um, this
has our recommendation, uh, and I believe the LEA, uh, is supportive of the language that is before you this evening. This is also something we've talked about recently when we last discussed contract negotiations. Um, but if anyone
has any questions or thoughts andor possible motions, then I'd be happy to hear those. I move that the school committee approve the memorandum of agreement with the Long Meadow Education Association unit A dated September 8th, 2025 as presented.
We have a motion. Do we have a second? There you go. Thank you, Adam. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Emily, yes. Zack, yes. Tammy, yes. Adam, yes. Okay.
Yes. Sorry, I tried to give you a second to Joe. Um and yes, for me as well. All right. Thank you. Um that moves us to an update on the middle school building projects. Uh not much to update. We're um eagerly anticipating the September 30th vote.
Actually, um appreciative that the um select board had extended early voting to the community um so to give some flexibility to voters. Um, I think, you know, as as people start to understand the the costs of the project, we had
invited um Dave Fontaine Jr., the CEO of Fontaine, to have a conversation with us. Uh, we recorded that in the LCTV studios. We posted it up to the middle school project page and encourage anyone with questions about the costs of the
project or the cost containment strategies that Fontaine has successfully used on prior projects to take a look at that video. Um I think it will be very helpful. A lot of new information that perhaps folks have not yet heard and it introduces our
construction management partner Fontaine. So, um, excited to, uh, find out the results of the the vote. It's been a long road. All right. Wonderful. Any questions about anything related to middle school building? All right. If folks haven't been out to
vote yet, um, get out there tomorrow andor we will see you on Tuesday. Very excited. All right. Uh, that brings us to our final motion of the evening. We're headed into executive session, not to reconvene into open session. We'll entertain a motion. I move that the school committee meet in
executive session pursuant to Massachusetts general law with purpose two to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for collective bargaining session with unit B D E F and non-union personnel and seven approval of minutes
and not to reconvene into open session. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll head into a vote. Emily, yes. Zach, yes. Jamie, yes. Kate, yes. Adam, yes. And yes for me as well. Thank you and
have a wonderful evening everyone. Thank you. Thank you.